Sunday, March 30, 2014

We spoke in church at the Unur Ward along with two other missionaries who were being transferred to different areas, Elder Norlund and Sister Matthews. AK, the big tall Kazakh, did our translating.

I am between the Bishop of the Unur Ward and his wife - Darlene is by her piano student, Enkhjin, and her mother

I gave him my last copy of the my marriage book I had left in Mongolia after the meeting. Darlene and I took up the lion's portion of the meeting.

Darlene concluded her remarks with a testimony in Mongolian. Many appreciative members came up to shake her hand afterward for her efforts to learn the language.

We were close to a few families in the ward. With more time, it would have only gotten better and better, just like in the Sukhbaatar Branch.

We enjoyed a lunch of hamburgers - our last meal in our refrigerator. We went to the church and had a final interview with President Benson. He expressed appreciation for our work and the impact it has had on the church in Mongolia.

We then had dinner along with the Gardners in the Benson apartment. We enjoyed interacting with their children for the last time.

Mary Ann - a real scamp

John playing "twunkle, twunkle, little twunk, I wonder why you stunk". He liked the new title for his song.

President Benson and Sister Benson prepared a lovely roast beef dinner with mashed potatoes and gravy with fresh rolls. Yum! Yum!Next up was the testimony meeting. We had a number of young missionaries show up who wanted to express their final goodbyes.

We have grown close to a number of them as we served together.

Ourselves with Puujee and Ulziika, two sisters who will help carry the banner of Family History in Mongolia

Buyan-Nemekh wasn't too happy about our leaving

The meeting went on a half hour longer than scheduled. We will miss our associations with them as well as the other senior couples.

One young Elder said he had been told he would make lifelong friends on his mission. He had no clue it would be with "old" people. After the meeting, we said our final goodbyes to each other and to the members who attended. We took a lot of pictures with members and missionaries. What memories we have of Mongolia.

Pres. Benson encouraged us to talk about our missionary experience here in Mongolia when we return to The United States. I don't think we needed much encouragement. We have made a lot of new friends, had wonderful, rich experiences, had fulfilling work, and were immersed in a unique culture in one of the most far-flung places in the world. The gospel has taken root here and the soil is good. It can't get any better than this - except for going home to family and loved ones from whom we have been separated for too long. It is time to be home. It is time to spoil our own grandchildren.

Darlene with her piano student Isabel

Keep looking at this blog - at least for a couple of weeks. En route we will spend 11 days with our son and his family on Okinawa and another son will come from Seattle to join us. Part of our trip involves layovers in Beijing, Tapei, and Shanghai. The adventure continues.We will be in St. Louis by April 13 and will be released as missionaries that day. We will be bursting to share more of what we have loved and experienced here in Mongolia.

Ulziika and the senior couples sang to each of couples who were leaving. Our was "The Farmers in Blue Deels".

We all took a turn sharing our thoughts and feelings

Highlights from the
visit to Sudjilmaa’s home.

A fun gathering of Sukhbaatar Branch members

Our hostess, Sudjilmaa, is seated at the table

Gansukh, Sudjilmaa's son, is giving Shuraii a back rub. I wanted to be next.

Not everyone could fit around the table

Puje is sharing a scripture, Batjargal is looking on, harolsuren and her husband are at the end of the table

Darlene and I were asked to share our thoughts and feelings about Mongolia, themselves, our mission, etc.

Preview of the final few days. Left on our agenda are dinners at Nasanbold's and Alimaa's homes, another gathering at the Sukhbaatar Branch, speaking in church at the Unur Ward, interviews and dinners with the Bensons, and a final testimony meeting on Sunday evening.

One more chance to see the Sukhbaatar Branch members on Saturday afternoon

Toss in a service project with the missionaries, a couple of counseling appointments, one last writing project and we still have a lot to do. It should make for one last blog from Mongolia - probably late Sunday night in Ulaanbaatar.

Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Winding down. The
weather has turned delightful. People are on the streets. There is excitement
in the air. We’ll leave Mongolia’s spring and summer for others to enjoy. We’ve
had our day in the sun.

Winters in Mongolia have their own charm - Photo by Karl Shuler

We (a term loosely used – think Sister Farmer) are cleaning
and packing, weighing suitcases, packing again with a new suitcase that weighs
17 pounds less than the one we are replacing, visiting homes and about to visit
more.

Our office has been stripped of our personal things. Our computer files have been consolidated and
stored on back up storage and flash drives. Our plants have been given away. Each
day of the week that passes will be the last one we spend in Mongolia. We will have a few more memories to make. We have more two
farewell parties to attend, three more dinners to enjoy, two more opportunities
to share our deepest thoughts, more goodbyes and gifts to exchange.

This too shall pass. Life goes on. Those truisms don’t stop
being true. Another cast of missionaries and seniors are moving the gospel
ahead in Mongolia while we will move on to other things. We will certainly be
interested. Part of our hearts will be left in Mongolia while we take our
memories with us.

Not all things were
rosy. On Sunday night we were aroused after mid-night by insistent pounding
on our door. We had been counseled not to open our door to strangers so we
weren’t too cooperative with a man speaking in loud and demanding Mongolian. He
then recruited a bunch of teen-age boys who were laughing at our fear and
encouraging us to open the door by chanting in English, “We are not bad guys.” They wouldn't give up and go away. They had promised the man they wouldn’t leave
until we looked at his bathroom ceiling. They were practically begging me to
open the door and investigate the problem. It turns out there was a leak from
our bathroom to the ceiling of his bathroom one floor directly below us. We made
some church related calls for help and a plumber came and shut off our water,
the aggrieved neighbor was relieved, and we all went back to sleep –sort of.

The next morning started out at 8:00 am with a series of
visitors - our landlord, a plumber, Batbold, the apartment manager for the
church – all involved in making the plumbing repairs.

Last Senior couple's meeting - Sister Farmer was helping a patron with her family history when the photo was taken

This drama ended during
the noon hour just shortly before our 1:00 pm monthly meeting with the Senior
couples and President Benson.

Mid-week update. We surprised themembers of the Sukhbaatar Branch by attending their meetings this
past Sunday. Our friends flocked around us as we said our goodbyes. We were
invited to speak in their sacrament meeting. It was a great day for closure for
them and us.

We found out that one of the dinners we have been invited to
this week in reality with be a farewell party for us and the Sukhbaatar Branch
members who can come. So it wasn’t quite our final goodbyes after all.

I had a couple of counseling sessions sandwiched between the other events of the weekend.

Darlene had a final training session with a few of the Consultants on Saturday morning. This was followed by a planning meeting between ourselves and Puujee about our upcoming meeting with the National Archives.

The farewell visits begin. The Bishop of the Unur Ward invited us to come to their home
for a Family Home evening on Monday night.

The Bishop and his daughter - a big evening finally wore her out

The sister missionaries joined us
for interpretation. There isn’t anything quite like Mongolian hospitality.

Our hostess, Otgonbat, a Family History Consultant, and wife of the Bishop of the Unur Ward

It was
an evening planned around abundant courses of food and leisurely and friendly
conversation. We were asked to share
some personal thoughts about our work in Mongolia.

We have a timed group photos
at the end where the camera unexpectedly was programmed to take about 8 shots
instead of two. It caught us by surprise and caused a lot of hilarity.

We had a final visit to Buyandelger’s home. She and her
family were gracious and served a lovely meal. She too was a magnificent cook and presents her food almost as a work of art.

Gorgeous dessert - served with popcorn

Darlene taught her granddaughter
Buyanzaya piano and she turned out to be a precocious musician.

We shared memories and feelings for about 20 minutes before the meal began

Buyandelger tearfully shared her fond memories of us, especially of our time together at
the Hong Kong temple.It is hard to
say goodbye to such sweet people.

No visit is complete until the photo albums are shared.

A meeting with the National
Archives.We had a meeting with the
two of the top officials of the National Archives. With the help of the
Translation Department and Steve Nickle, the top Family History person for acquisitions
for Family Search for Asia and Africa, we had prepared three great videos (Granite
Mountain, Niue Island and a brand new video about Family Search’s relationship
with the Guatemalan government) with Mongolian subtitles and voice over to demonstrate
the professionalism and contributions of Family Search and how it could help
them. The videos were perfect for what they needed to know about us.

Erdene-Badrakh, Puujee, ourselves, and Bilguun

The mood was positive and upbeat, their disclosure of their
status and problems with record preservation and digitization was frank and
forthcoming. They expressed a strong interest in getting help from Family
Search in achieving their goals.

Together we can do this - Photo by Karl Shuler

We couldn’t have realistically hoped for
anything better. (It would have been thrilling for us to have the contract
signed while we were still in Mongolia but the timing wasn’t right). It looks
like the process will take another couple of months to come to fruition with Danny
Chin coming in from Hong Kong to complete the negotiations. The contract has to
meet legal muster with the Ministry of Justice also and that will take a little
time.During the meeting, one of the directors said to his
superior that he had promised us a sample from their census records and he hadn’t
delivered on his promise. The Deputy Director waived a secretary to bring in
some records and they took pictures with my camera of their records. Just like
that! There was no hesitancy.

Sample of a Mongolian census record in classical Mongolian script - names are written across the top

We were dealing with the actual decision-makers
in the National Archives and they wanted
our help.We were happy. We did
everything we could during our mission to accomplish this goal and it will be
left to others to finish the task.

That is the way all of this will end – it will be left to
others to finish the task of Family History in Mongolia. We feel good about our
part in this process. It is the Lord’s work and it will happen according to His
will and design.

About Me

Dr. Val Farmer, Psychologist, has 36 years of professional experience to his writing and counseling career. He used a concise, researched writing style to meet his reader's needs.
As a newspaper columnist since 1984, Farmer has shared concise, ever-wise, down-to-earth information which has enriched the lives of countless readers.
Dr. Farmer has become a major voice in the area of rural psychology. You can find his archived writings at www.valfarmer.com.